It is well-known that cellular base station power amplifiers are most efficient when operating at their rated power. These power amplifiers are generally sized for the maximum power required at a cell site's busiest hour. In order to conserve power, components are typically included to place unneeded overhead resources to sleep in the power amplifier at the device-level architecture. These components are generally complementary to other planned efficiency improvements. Because most of these prior art components are not backward compatible with legacy equipment, they cannot offer energy savings until multiple modules are plugged into the frame.
One prior method proposes a sleep mode architecture that places amplifier modules in and out of service. This architecture, however, is not self-contained and requires the assistance of an external controller. As a result, granularity is not maximized. This proposed sleep mode architecture typically requires a great deal of coordination between the power amplifiers and a higher level controller to manage the switching in and out of parallel amplifier modules. Thus, it is not an efficient solution to conserve power.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common and well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.